tend
- 1To be likely to do something, or to have a particular habit or leaning.
Prices tend to rise when demand outpaces supply.
Younger drivers tend to underestimate how long the trip will take.
UsageFollowed by to + verb (tend to rise); a leaning can also take toward + noun (tends toward caution).
- 2To care for a thing such as a garden, livestock, a fire, or a machine so that it stays healthy or in working order.
Volunteers tend the community garden throughout the summer.
On the night shift, two technicians tended the furnaces and kept them running.
UsageUsually takes the thing directly (tend the garden, tend the fire), though tend to the garden is also common.
Similarmind, maintain, cultivate
Oppositeneglect
Note
The care this meaning names is steady and hands-on: weeding a garden, feeding a flock, keeping a fire or a furnace going. Where the nursing meaning is about people, this one is about things and animals that need regular attention to keep working or growing.
- 3To contribute toward a particular outcome.
These reforms tend toward greater fairness across the system.
The witnesses' accounts all tend to support the theory that the fire began in the kitchen.
UsageOften tend toward an outcome, or tend to with verbs like show, support or suggest.
Similarlead, contribute
Note
This meaning is common in careful argument, where an act or a piece of evidence is said to push events in one direction. A speech reported in William Cobbett's The Parliamentary History of England (1806–1820) recalls that the Lords had declared that annexing such clauses "tends to the destruction of this government."
- 4To turn one's attention to a task, matter, or need and deal with it; used with to.
The manager left the meeting early to tend to an urgent problem with a supplier.
Before leaving on vacation, he tended to every unpaid bill on his desk.
Usagetend to + noun means deal with it (tend to a problem); tend to + verb says what usually happens.
- 5To look after someone, such as a person who is ill.
He tended the wounded soldiers for weeks after the battle.
Volunteers tend those too frail to care for themselves.
UsageTakes the person directly (tend the wounded), though tend to the sick is also common.
Oppositeneglect
Note
A separate word from the "be likely" verb, though a distant relative. This tend is attend with its first syllable worn away, and attend itself goes back to the Latin "stretch" word.
Less common meanings
- 6To go with someone as a helper or protector and look after their needs.
A loyal squire tended the knight throughout the long journey.
Maids tend the guests and see to their every comfort.
- 7To be attentive to something, noting it carefully; to attend to it.
Being to descend / A ladder much in height, I did not tend / My way well down.
1614, Homer, Homer’s OdyssesNote
The point here is attention rather than care, and the use is obsolete. In George Chapman's translation of Homer, a speaker coming down a tall ladder "did not tend / My way well down," meaning he did not watch his footing. Heed and attend to have replaced it. In modern prose, tend with an object will be heard as looking after.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The sense meaning to pay careful attention is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- George Chapman translated the Homeric work containing the quotation. gutenberg.org
- The quoted wording describes a speaker's failure to watch his footing while descending a tall ladder; the speaker is Elpenor's soul, recounting his fatal fall. gutenberg.org
- 8To await something; to expect it.
Note
An obsolete use, met in older texts and long since displaced by await and expect. Older lines with tend need care, because they can look like the caretaking meaning, and only context decides. In modern writing, use await, since tended will be read as cared for.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Tend has an obsolete sense meaning await or expect. en.wiktionary.org
- 9To manage an anchored vessel as the tide turns, keeping it from tangling its cable while it swings.
- 10To formally offer or present something, especially a payment, in fulfillment of a legal obligation.
- 11To kindle or set something on fire; to light it.
Practice
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Origins
Latin "tendere" ("to stretch, extend, spread out") became Old French "tendre" ("to stretch out, hold forth, offer"), which Middle English borrowed as "tenden."
From Middle English "tenden," formed by dropping the first syllable of "attenden" ("to attend").
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Tend comes from Middle English tenden. en.wiktionary.org
- Tenden was formed by dropping the first syllable of attenden, meaning “to attend.” en.wiktionary.org